Battle to Annihilate a Realm!

A single roar of "Kill!" raised the curtain on the great battle. King Daqin and King Dazhou stepped forth into the sky, instantly tearing through the void and hurtling toward the heart of Tianyuan. Their objective was Half-Emperor Tianyuan, a Dao Harmonization realm powerhouse! They had come to slay Half-Emperor Tianyuan! "You're out of your minds!" Half-Emperor Tianyuan's face turned icy cold. They were crazy—utterly insane. The humans had truly attacked! Even amid his rage, a deep tremor shook his heart. This was terrible trouble. The human Invincibles who had assaulted the realm numbered over thirty. The Tianyuan race boasted no small number of Invincibles of their own, and counting several ancient figures, they possessed over twenty. Yet that was still fewer than the humans. Half-Emperor Tianyuan had no intention of fighting alone. Otherwise, even if he managed to hold off the humans, his race would be finished. A time channel sliced across heaven and earth! He wanted all the worlds to know that the humans had come to slaughter them! Right at that moment, another time channel manifested in the void. It belonged to King Miecan. His expression was dead serious, stripped entirely of his earlier helplessness and frustration, weighed down with a solemnity that left no room for stray thoughts. Within the blink of an eye, his time channel expanded across the entire Tianyuan Realm, blanketing heaven and earth. As Half-Emperor Tianyuan's time channel tore across the cosmos, it tried to pierce King Miecan's obstruction with a dull *pshh*, but failed. At the same time, King Miecan's physical body convulsed, hairline fractures spreading across his skin as a mouthful of blood erupted from his lips. Too strong! His opponent was far too powerful! A single attempt to force through had shaken King Miecan's very rules. Even with his mastery of the Dao of Time, he was barely holding on. Higher up, divine characters emerged around Great Han King one after another, forming a luminous film as the second line of defense. Beyond that lay yet another perimeter established by King Dazhou. Only by breaking through all three defensive lines could Half-Emperor Tianyuan pierce the realm boundary and transmit a message to the outside world! Otherwise, before every last one of these defenders was slain, the human race would not permit a single whisper to escape. Half-Emperor Tianyuan snorted coldly, and his time channel trembled once more! Right then, a spear ripped through the void, thrusting straight toward him! "Die!" King Daqin roared. Far off in the distance, phenomena of falling suns and moons were already rising into the sky. The other human Invincibles charged in wave upon wave. Every Tianyuan powerhouse along their path was ruthlessly slaughtered! This was an ethnic war! The destiny of their race was staked on this single gamble! If they did not win, humanity was doomed! If they won, the humans would intimidate the myriad heavens, forcing the gods, demons, immortals, and dragons to weigh the costs and benefits before daring to fight humanity to the bitter end. *** The spear tore through the heavens! Half-Emperor Tianyuan gave a cold snort, setting the entire domain trembling. A wisp of black light instantly wound itself around the spear shaft. The corrosive power of this darkness was terrifyingly potent. The Guiyuan Saber was a divine weapon, yet under this black light, it hissed and smoked as it was eaten away! Nevertheless, a divine weapon remained a divine weapon! Radiance erupted from the spear, and murderous intent surged to the heavens! "Qin Guang, have you considered the consequences?" Half-Emperor Tianyuan barked viciously, "This is my Tianyuan home realm! Do not push me too far! Drive me to the brink, and I will shatter the barrier to the Dead Spirit Realm and drag all of us down together! Qin Guang, do you truly wish to bury so many human powerhouses right here?" King Daqin spoke not a word, offering nothing in reply save for slaughter! *Boom!* Heaven fell and the earth cracked as his spear pierced through the void. "Hmph! The Dao Harmonization realm is beyond your imagination!" Half-Emperor Tianyuan was thoroughly enraged. In the distance, Invincible figures were already locked in combat. The humans held the advantage in numbers. Although the Tianyuan race possessed several formidable ancient relics of immense power, if this dragged on, the Tianyuan race was destined to lose. Unless... he could end this quickly by slaying King Daqin and King Dazhou! Kill those two, and the human forces would collapse! "Qin Guang, offer up your life!" A low shout resonated through heaven and earth. An invisible force bypassed everything, even bypassing the obstacles of rules and origin qi, striking straight into King Daqin's sea of will in an instant! A curse technique! King Daqin's expression did not change in the slightest, even as blood leaked from all seven orifices of his face. He did not care. It was not as if he had never faced curse techniques before. He had fought the Tianyuan race in the past! What can you do to me? *Kill!* His spear thrust forward once more with unstoppable resolve. His heart held nothing but this spear; until his foe was dead, the spear would never withdraw! When trying to slay a Dao Harmonization expert, how could one afford to defend? There was only endless, unrelenting attack! He had to strike until the opponent had nowhere left to run! He was already weaker than his adversary; trying to guard against every angle was impossible! "Kill!" Nothing remained except slaughter! The single word echoed through his very being. Half-Emperor Tianyuan's expression flickered slightly. With a cold grunt, an invisible wall materialized before him. In the distance, several human Invincibles moved to assist, but King Dazhou bellowed, "Get back! Join forces to slay the Tianyuan Eternals! Hurry, we don't have time!" They needed no help! His and King Daqin's target was Half-Emperor Tianyuan. Everyone else's goal was to wipe out their opponents as quickly as possible. Only with superior numbers could they hope to finish off the enemy swiftly. Otherwise, it would end in mutual destruction or an indecisive stalemate—neither of which was what humanity sought! The Invincibles who had moved to reinforce them immediately turned away and plunged back into their respective melees. *Rumble!* The group of Invincibles harbored no stray thoughts, consumed entirely by slaughter. As the battle erupted, heaven and earth were torn apart; the ground was pulverized into dust and gouged into black abysses, shockwaves of energy washing across the world as the realm shook violently. In the core region, countless Tianyuan powerhouses were obliterated. The brilliance of suns and moons continually crashed from the sky! At this point, the Tianyuan race fought with desperate madness. A cluster of quasi-Invincibles bellowed in unison, setting up a massive formation below. Seven or eight quasi-Invincibles seemed to commune with some terrifying entity. "With my blood, I curse and slay the human race!" The quasi-Invincibles roared together. In the void, a dense fog of death qi erupted. The physical bodies of those seven or eight quasi-Invincibles were instantly corroded, and that fiercely potent death qi surged toward a human powerhouse in the air! *Pshhh!* The death qi was savage beyond measure, dissolving that human Invincible's physical body with a single hiss! In the blink of an eye, his flesh turned to ash. The human Invincible's three incarnations separated in an instant, and one of them was wiped out on the spot! Yet without the slightest hesitation, the human powerhouse plummeted downward. His remaining two incarnations charged together, tearing through the void and colliding with those seven or eight quasi-Invincibles! *Bang! Bang! Bang!* After a string of deafening detonations, all seven or eight quasi-Invincibles below perished. The human Invincible was left with only a single incarnation, soaked in blood, his face deathly pale. From the very opening moments, the battle was white-hot. Both sides knew this was a war of extermination! There was no room for hesitation, no room for mercy! Quasi-Invincibles were top-tier experts in their own right, and some could even contest true Invincibles. Unfortunately for the Tianyuan race, their strongest quasi-Invincible, Tianzhou, had been slain by Su Yu. Had he been present, ordinary Invincibles would have been no match for him. In the distance, a Tianyuan Invincible found himself besieged by three human Invincibles. His three incarnations were battered apart in moments. With a furious roar, death qi erupted from his entire form as he howled, "With my body, I curse Ning Hong to fall into hell forever!" In an instant, all three of his incarnations ignited! He knew he could not hold out. This time, the humans had come with an iron resolve to annihilate their race. He was doomed to die, and the Tianyuan race itself stood on the brink of extinction. The moment his three incarnations were severed, he accepted his fate. Since death was certain, why should an Invincible fear anything at this stage? *If I die, none of you will have an easy time either!* Farther away, above the human Invincible who had just slaughtered several quasi-Invincibles, an evil and immense surge of death qi suddenly formed, enveloping and burning him in an instant! "Ning Hong!" a human Invincible cried out in alarm. Ning Hong was a newly ascended human Invincible who had attained the Dao within a small realm. His cultivation was relatively weak; otherwise, two of his incarnations would not have been destroyed by mere quasi-Invincibles. Now, targeted by an enemy Invincible who had sacrificed all three incarnations to fuel a curse, Ning Hong's third incarnation began to burn away immediately! Agony surfaced in Ning Hong's eyes. Death qi clung to his entire frame. An enemy Invincible had paid with his life to curse this final incarnation; he simply could not withstand it. Seeing someone rush to save him, he gritted his teeth and forced a laugh. "Don't bother! My sea of will is collapsing! It's my own fault for being too weak and too cowardly. Back then, I only dared to attain the Dao in a small realm, not daring to prove myself before the myriad heavens. I couldn't advance for so long... I've shamed the human race! I've shamed all of you!" With a hearty laugh, Ning Hong bellowed, "King Datang, kill him!" In the distance, flames of fury flared in King Datang's eyes as he threw a frenzied punch toward the opposing Invincible! Simultaneously, Ning Hong transformed into a streak of deadly light, flashing beside the Tianyuan Invincible. Before the foe could recover from his shock and rage, Ning Hong condensed into an incomparably sharp needle of radiance, punching straight through the enemy's defenses with a sharp *pshh*! King Datang's fist followed immediately behind, obliterating the opponent's physical body in a single blow! The enemy's River of Time churned violently. The instant his body reformed, King Datang struck again, blowing it apart once more! Three strikes in succession! *Boom!* The River of Time snapped! Dark clouds gathered thick across the sky! In the blink of an eye—truly just a fleeting breath—one human Invincible had fallen, while the Tianyuan race had lost two Invincibles and seven or eight quasi-Invincibles. The slaughter came with terrifying speed! Neither the humans nor the Tianyuan race had time for sorrow. There was no room for grief. Both sides fought with fury, bloodlust, and the desperation of cornered beasts, waging a fight to the death across heaven and earth! Over where King Daqin fought, King Dazhou had still not made a move. Yet his inaction was precisely what was terrifying. The deterrence of holding back was greater than striking! Half-Emperor Tianyuan could not fathom the depths of his strength, nor could he guess when the strike would land. He only knew that King Dazhou's overwhelmingly lethal intent had locked onto him without wavering for a single moment! The instant he showed a flaw, a fatal blow would strike him! For an Eternal to slay a Dao Harmonization powerhouse was as difficult as ascending the heavens. Yet when both Eternals were monstrosities of their craft, it was by no means impossible. *Boom!* With a thunderous crash, a slender sword appeared in Half-Emperor Tianyuan's grip—the first time he had drawn a weapon. The blade flickered forth, severing King Daqin's River of Time with a sharp hiss and piercing through his arm! Death qi spilled from the slender sword. The Tianyuan race shared an intimate bond with the Dead Spirit Realm. In ancient times, their race had belonged to the Heaven's Mandate branch, but they had fallen toward the fringes of the Dead Spirit Realm and degenerated. Death qi had always suppressed and corroded life qi. With that single thrust, King Daqin felt his arm vanish, as though it no longer belonged to him! His spear trembled slightly, yet it continued forward with unstoppable momentum, sweeping outward. With a heavy *bang*, the strike whipped Half-Emperor Tianyuan's hair into disarray, leaving a bloody gash across his throat. Just as Half-Emperor Tianyuan prepared to strike back, he abruptly tore through the void and shifted away. The instant he vanished, a golden ray pierced the spot where he had stood. A small black hole appeared, only to rapidly expand and detonate with a violent *bang*! Even King Daqin was forced back several paces. Having slipped away, Half-Emperor Tianyuan's expression darkened as he glared at King Dazhou. King Dazhou frowned slightly and barked, "Qin Guang, what are you doing? Pin him down!" King Daqin wore an apologetic look. "Rest assured, I won't make that mistake again!" With those words, he gripped his spear and charged back into the fray! Indeed, this was their rhythm. It had always been this way! King Daqin took the front line in melee combat while King Dazhou waited for the perfect opening to unleash a lethal finisher! However, it required seamless coordination. Just now, King Daqin had failed to pin the foe down, allowing him to evade, rendering King Dazhou's sure-kill art useless. Half-Emperor Tianyuan felt crushing pressure weigh on him! That attack just now had detonated the void with astonishing lethality. Even for him, a direct hit would have damaged his physical body and inflicted severe injuries! "Do you truly think you have me at your mercy?" Half-Emperor Tianyuan snarled. Casting all hesitation aside, he roared, "You forced my hand! You brought this on yourselves!" "Ruler of Fate, return!" Far away at the border of the Tianyuan Realm, where it bordered the Dead Spirit Realm, there had stood a small city. At this moment, the city suddenly dissolved, transforming into a ruler that flew toward Half-Emperor Tianyuan! A special Dao-attainment method! It was the weapon fusion method, similar to the path taken by Tianmie and the other stone guardians! Originally, this ruler had served to suppress the Dead Spirit Realm, much like Tianmie's post. Now, it tore away from its station. Although no dead spirit channel opened in its place, a blurred realm barrier appeared, and the moment the ruler vanished, vast quantities of death qi poured across the threshold! The Tianyuan race cooperated with the Dead Spirit Realm, but they had also guarded against being overrun by it. Now, Half-Emperor Tianyuan knew his race stood on the brink of ruin; how could he care about that anymore? Today, he had to fight his way out of the Tianyuan Realm! So long as he escaped, he would be safe. The humans lacked the audacity and strength to hunt him down on the All-Heavens Battlefield; Dao Harmonization allies would surely come to his aid! Thus, breaking out was his only hope! That was his path to survival, and the only hope for the entire Tianyuan race! The ruler flew into his hand. In an instant, Half-Emperor Tianyuan's aura surged. Under the weapon fusion method, regaining one's Dao weapon granted an immediate spike in combat strength! Gripping the ruler, he lashed out. A deafening roar erupted as even the Guiyuan Saber shuddered under the impact. This ruler was his true trump card! With a cold sneer, Half-Emperor Tianyuan unleashed his willpower once more, crashing it into King Daqin! At this moment, King Dazhou could no longer stand back and wait! King Daqin could not hold him off alone! One was an Eternal ninth-stage, while the other was at the Dao Harmonization realm. King Daqin had not walked the weapon fusion path; he followed the Dao of Three Incarnations, and with two of his incarnations destroyed, he was far from his peak. He was immediately suppressed! "Curse arts? Mere parlor tricks!" King Dazhou snorted softly. A divine character emerged, and a pattern resembling a luminous net flashed into existence across the void, instantly enveloping Half-Emperor Tianyuan. Half-Emperor Tianyuan's expression shifted once more as a blood-red token materialized before him! A Councilor Token! As the token appeared, a bolt of blood-red lightning struck the net with a tremendous rumble! A thunderous crash echoed across the heavens! The divine character before King Dazhou fractured immediately. King Dazhou's brow furrowed slightly. "The Councilor Token of the Tianyuan Progenitor?" This Councilor Token was essentially a manifestation of rules! It embodied the Dao rules of the Tianyuan race's founding ancestor! In a single clash, it had overwhelmed his divine character. While King Dazhou frowned, Half-Emperor Tianyuan was thoroughly shaken. *It didn't break completely? It had failed to shatter entirely! How was that possible?!* "You're advancing to Dao Harmonization through divine characters?" Half-Emperor Tianyuan was dumbfounded. "You're truly walking the path of divine character Dao attainment... Zhou Tianqi, you're the true number one powerhouse of the Human Realm..." *Bang!* A spear thrust home. King Daqin seemed rather displeased by the comment. Well, in truth, he had simply spotted an opening. This fool had actually dared to lose his focus in the middle of battle. With a heavy clang like striking tempered steel, the spear pierced Half-Emperor Tianyuan's flesh, stained with flecks of fresh blood. Half-Emperor Tianyuan roared and swung his ruler. With a deafening boom, the spear shook violently, and the flesh on King Daqin's arm was instantly reduced to powder! Only jade-white bone remained! "You want to kill me? You're not qualified!" Half-Emperor Tianyuan roared again. In the distance, the battle had reached its absolute climax. An ancient Tianyuan Invincible looked around with a bleak gaze and sighed, "From the sixth tide until now, your human race... has always been so overbearing! In this tide, I thought you could only wait for death... Who would have imagined you would come knocking on our door first!" He sighed with deep emotion! He was an expert who had survived since the sixth tide! Back then, he had fought and bled against human powerhouses. In those days, the humans had been just as domineering, just as mighty, sweeping across the myriad heavens. In that tide, the humans had won the early rounds... yet had ultimately met defeat! What would the outcome be this time? He did not know. He sighed softly. "I have lived long enough. Even if you kill us, you will meet no good end either. I shall await you... in the Dead Spirit Realm!" *Boom!* A world-shaking detonation rang out. This was an ancient monster of the Eternal seventh stage, and he had chosen to self-detonate! The catastrophic force of the explosion sent the three human Invincibles surrounding him coughing up blood. The weakest among them had his three incarnations torn apart, one of them instantly vaporized! This was an ethnic war! There was only life or death; neither side had any path of retreat! The Tianyuan powerhouse had refused to yield until his final breath, severely wounding three Invincibles in an instant and shattering one incarnation of another to create an opening for his kin! The one whose incarnation had been destroyed was King Dayue. His strength was lower than most Invincibles, sitting at the Eternal fifth stage. Among the founding lords of the prefectures, a few had reached the ninth stage, some were at the eighth, and many had attained the seventh. At the very least, most possessed the power of the sixth stage. Those at the fifth stage were rare, representing the weakest tier among them. Having founded his prefecture so many years ago and remaining at the fifth stage meant that his talent had reached its limit, not that he lacked diligence. Pushing higher was simply too difficult! Younger figures like Xia Longwu had entered the fourth stage upon attaining the Dao! In terms of actual combat power, the newcomers were not necessarily weaker than the old guard. For veterans like King Dayue, this brought both pride and helplessness. Now that one of his incarnations had been destroyed, his strength had dropped; he might not even match Xia Longwu anymore—in fact, he almost certainly fell short. King Dayue let out a resigned sigh. "I leave Dayue Prefecture in your hands, old friends. I've embarrassed you all. Even a junior managed to take a life from me... How shameful!" Before founding his prefecture, he had been a local overlord, following King Daqin and the others to campaign across the heavens, though he had mostly stayed on the sidelines. Today, three of them had besieged a single foe, yet he had still lost an incarnation. It was disgraceful. At this point, he could either seek out a weaker opponent or buy more time and opportunity for humanity! "You..." Beside him, King Dasong was about to shout, but King Dayue looked into the distance. His eyes turned sharp as he focused on a top-tier Tianyuan Invincible who was overpowering King Dajin and King Dachu. He transmitted, "That man is too strong—an Eternal ninth-stage. Those two fools are no match for him and will soon be crushed. I'll go cripple him. Join forces to slay him in an instant! Otherwise, our casualties will mount. Don't give him the chance to self-detonate!" That was a true ancient fossil, perhaps a figure from the first tide. His decaying aura was virtually indistinguishable from a dead spirit. Yet such beings were terrifyingly powerful! If that old monster made a desperate final stand, the two Eternal seventh-stage humans fighting him might both perish. King Dayue was only at the fifth stage. Without waiting for anyone to respond, he transformed into a golden streak, tearing through the void toward the distant battle. The powerhouse suppressing King Dachu and King Dajin sensed the sudden shift, his expression flickering. He had not fought with suicidal abandon because he was winning; once victorious, he could move on to butcher others. There was no need to throw his life away. Yet at this moment, he felt a sudden brush with mortal danger. A powerful entity fused his remaining two incarnations and ignited them, transforming entirely into the rule power of the Great Dao. With a deafening *boom*, he punched straight through the enemy's defenses! At that exact moment, King Dasong and the others roared and unleashed their full might! Heaven and earth trembled! Dark clouds blotted out the sky, and the entire realm shuddered. King Dayue had fallen! In the void, an illusory projection of King Dayue appeared, gazing into the distance toward the east—toward his homeland. He walked eastward step by step, a faint smile on his lips. *My home is over there!* Humanity had waged war across the cosmos for a hundred thousand years. How many had perished in foreign lands? He had never wanted to fight. Yet he had been forced to. Over four hundred years ago, he had only wanted to remain a local tyrant, a wealthy warlord. That year, King Daqin had tracked him down, beaten him black and blue, and dragged him off by brute force to wage war across the heavens! Throughout that campaign, he had been timid and afraid to die, hiding in the rear for most of it. Later, the great war ended. He founded his prefecture, establishing Dayue Prefecture to shelter hundreds of millions of common folk, becoming the revered god of his people. He often wanted to laugh at that. *A god?* *No, back in the day, I was just a bandit. Did any of you know that?* In that chaotic era, he had done everything. He had killed mortals, gods, demons... He was no saint! And now, he had marched to war once more, finally meeting his end right here. King Dayue burst into laughter. "Qin Guang, Zhou Tianqi... both of you are dogs! Why the hell did I have to listen to you? Hahaha!" With a hearty roar of laughter, King Dayue stepped forward into the darkness, his final remnant will dispersing into nothingness! Those two were bastards through and through; he had wanted to curse them to their faces for centuries! In the distance, King Dazhou and King Daqin remained expressionless, though the rims of their eyes reddened slightly. Another companion who had fought by their side for over four hundred years was gone. Ning Hong had been much younger, not an old brother who had carved out the world with them. But King Dayue was a comrade who had bled alongside them all the way to this day! "Kill!" King Daqin roared in fury, his spear sweeping across the world with unmatched ferocity! Over on the other battlefield, the Eternal ninth-stage powerhouse had been grievously injured by King Dayue's suicidal strike. In the next breath, five human Invincibles poured their full power into furious attacks, unleashing earth-shattering booms! In the blink of an eye, one of his incarnations was shattered. This powerhouse also cultivated the Dao of Three Incarnations. With one incarnation destroyed, his remaining two manifested simultaneously, lunging at his attackers with blood-drenched fury! Farther away, another Tianyuan Invincible was blasted apart by the joint assault of King Datang and King Dashang. Without pausing, both kings charged toward the fray, ready to combine their might and finish off that terrifying ninth-stage foe! *** In the Human Realm. Su Yu settled the crown upon his head. The next instant, the Human Realm trembled faintly, and the crown wobbled slightly. Before the crowd noticed, the expressions of King Daxia and King Daming shifted drastically! The war had begun! What was more, an Invincible had fallen! A human Invincible! At this moment, the guests remained prostrated, and the envoys of the myriad races dared not look directly at Su Yu due to the blinding golden radiance. Aside from the two mighty Invincibles present, no one—not even Lesser King Zhou—sensed anything amiss. Yet Su Yu's heart lurched! Someone had died! A human Invincible had fallen. He could not tell who it was, though it was likely not one of the founding kings. Still, an Invincible had undeniably perished; he could feel the disturbance in humanity's destiny! The war had broken out! Su Yu's expression grew solemn as he looked down at the kneeling assembly. Quickly, he composed himself. However... moments later, the golden seal of Dayue Prefecture floating in the void suddenly shuddered violently. Far away at the borders of the Human Realm, Dayue Prefecture itself began to quake! Great Han King was suppressing the cosmic phenomena on the battlefield, yet within the Human Realm, the death of a founding king could not be completely hidden; the reverberations were too immense! Ordinary people felt nothing, but the Invincibles gradually caught on. One by one, their faces paled. Something had happened... to King Dayue! King Daxia snapped his gaze toward the golden seal of Dayue Prefecture, where a faint fissure had appeared. Below, the delegation from Dayue Prefecture was still kneeling. Su Yu's expression flickered again! A founding king had fallen! The interval was so short! In just a brief span, two human Invincibles had died, one of them a founding lord. At that moment, several people prepared to raise their heads, having sensed the disturbance. Su Yu abruptly barked, "Dayue, Dachu, Daliao! Your three prefectures dared to defy the sacred will of heaven earlier! You shall be punished! Thirty percent of your prefectures' providence shall be stripped away as a warning to all!" The moment those words rang out, everyone's attention shifted away from the tremor and turned to sheer dread. Su Yu was actually holding them accountable right now! Radiance erupted from Su Yu's crown, instantly connecting to the seals of the three prefectures. In an instant, the cracking seal of Dayue Prefecture was swallowed by golden light, hiding it from view. A moment later, the three great seals reappeared. Dayue Prefecture's seal appeared somewhat weakened, but the fissure had vanished. The seals of Dachu and Daliao showed little change. King Daxia and King Daming saw clearly that Su Yu had not stripped providence from the three prefectures at all. Instead, he had detached a portion from his own crown to mend Dayue's seal. Below, the Governor of Dayue Prefecture looked up at Su Yu with a face full of fury! Su Yu's gaze was frigid as he said coldly, "Whoever refuses to submit to me is not human and shall be executed! Now that I am Sacred Master, across the myriad heavens, I alone reign supreme over humanity!" *I alone reign supreme!* What arrogance! Yet despite his boiling anger, the Governor of Dayue Prefecture felt completely helpless. He believed Su Yu had extracted a vast amount of Dayue's providence; while the other two prefectures looked relatively unharmed, his own seal had visibly dimmed. He was furious and resentful! *You were the one who told me to do it!* *I only followed your instructions, yet you treat Dayue Prefecture like this! Su Yu, you bastard!* *Despicable!* Providence might seem ethereal, but it truly existed. If providence waned, the origin qi concentration of Dayue Prefecture might drop, and its people could suffer setbacks in cultivation and daily life. This was a severe blow to the prefecture! Around him, the other governors felt a chill run down their spines. Su Yu was far too tyrannical! The moment he ascended, he punished three prefectures without hesitation. Could this man truly lead as Sacred Master? Nearby, the envoys of the myriad races gradually sensed the faint tremor rolling in from Dayue Prefecture. They clicked their tongues in disbelief. How ruthless! He was killing the chicken to scare the monkeys right out of the gate? Had stripping away so much providence destabilized the entire prefecture? This Su Yu was astonishingly brutal and domineering! The Governor of Dayue Prefecture was himself at the Sun Moon ninth layer. As he sensed the tremors echoing from his homeland, he could no longer hold back. "Su Yu..." "Insolent!" King Daxia barked in anger, "You dare address the Sacred Master by his personal name? Do you wish to die?" The governor's rage burned hotter, but he forced it down and ground out, "Too much of my prefecture's providence has been drained! I must return to suppress the unrest! I beg the Sacred Master's permission!" Su Yu said indifferently, "Denied!" The governor was beside himself with fury. Yet seeing everyone else kneeling and the Invincibles keeping silent, he knew that if he tried to force his way out, disaster would follow! Gritting his teeth, he recalled his golden seal. Su Yu did not stop him. But the instant the governor retrieved the seal, he realized something was terribly wrong... The providence was still draining away, and the seal was still crumbling from within! Moreover, there was an unfamiliar trace of providence embedded within it that did not belong to Dayue Prefecture! A violent tremor tore through his heart! A terrible realization struck him! He remembered... Dawei Prefecture and the others from centuries past! When a founding king fell, that was precisely what happened to their prefectural seals—shrinking by a full circle. Recalling the strange tremors from earlier, and the shaking of Dayue Prefecture... In a single instant, understanding dawned on him! Tears burst from his eyes. He snapped his head up toward Su Yu on the high platform. Su Yu sat with utter calm, looking back at him with an unyielding, resolute gaze. *My father... has met with misfortune!* *Su Yu knows! Yes, he definitely knows!* *My father... has fallen!* The heavens had collapsed! Tears poured uncontrollably down the governor's cheeks. He could not accept it, could not hold back his grief, even though he knew that this was neither the time nor the place! His father was likely dead! Had war erupted across the heavens? He did not know! Yet he understood now. King Daxia knew, and Su Yu knew. They were covering it up! "Sacred Master..." He looked toward Su Yu, his gaze brimming with intense sorrow. *What happened to my father?* On the platform, Su Yu rose from the throne, looking down upon the plaza as he said coldly, "Governor of Dayue, do you intend to defy my orders?" "N-No... I dare not..." "Useless!" Su Yu barked harshly, "A dignified expert of the Sun Moon ninth layer, reduced to such pitiful weakness! I had little contact with your father, King Dayue; I met him only twice. He had the rough air of a bandit through and through. Though his strength was ordinary, he was proud and unyielding—hateful, yet respectable! You are his son, yet over a minor reprimand, you weep openly before everyone... It is because humanity has useless trash like you that we have fallen into such decay!" The Governor of Dayue wiped his tears and bowed his head, neither daring nor wishing to speak. Su Yu declared with an icy edge, "Now that I am the Master of this Sacred Ground, I expect none of you to overstep your bounds! Today, all of you shall prostrate yourselves and pay homage! I would like to see who dares defy me today! I would also like to see if I might execute a few more heads to intimidate the myriad heavens!" The prefecture governors were filled with tangled emotions. Su Yu was far too overbearing! It defied belief! He was deliberately picking fights with the human prefectures! He actually wanted to punish more of them! What on earth was he trying to achieve? Even the envoys of the myriad races looked on with strange expressions. He was truly vicious! Hadn't this man just taken power? Wasn't he afraid that acting like this would provoke a rebellion among the prefectures? On his very first day! *** Among the crowd, an elder of the Five Elements race transmitted, "This man... is truly wild and tyrannical! He extracted providence from three great prefectures right off the bat. If the founding kings find out... there will surely be chaos!" The elder felt a chill run down his spine. What a terrifying youth. He genuinely feared Su Yu might suddenly fly into a frenzy and butcher the foreign envoys as well. Standing here was thoroughly uncomfortable! On the platform, Su Yu fell silent for a long moment before finally saying, "Rise. Take your seats and serve the feast. Out of respect for my father's birthday banquet, I will not lower myself to bicker with you all!" Those words left everyone feeling stifled once more. So if it weren't for his father's banquet, they wouldn't even have been allowed to stand? Beside Su Yu, grief flickered in King Daxia's eyes. He transmitted softly, "I hope... you will treat Dayue Prefecture kindly. King Dayue has fallen. The other one... was likely King Hong." Su Yu said nothing. Throughout several major clashes, humanity had not lost a single Invincible. Yet today, in the opening moments alone, two had perished. A deep sorrow welled within his heart. Was attacking the Tianyuan race... worth it? Perhaps... it was. If they did not strike, the Tianyuan race would have moved against humanity sooner or later. Whether it was worth it was one matter; seeing Invincibles truly fall in battle was entirely another. Su Yu lifted his gaze toward the sky. *I... can only buy you a little time to keep the myriad races from noticing. The rest is up to you all!* *I am sorry!*